Outdoor Exploration: Yellowstone Part 2

Thanks for tuning in for part two! Part one touched the tip of the iceberg of Yellowstone National Park geology, and this one will focus on the animals we saw.

The first critter we came across was a bighorn sheep in the Gallatin National Forest on our way into the park.

Bighorn Sheep

And then we entered the park, and the first picture I took was this one, of buffalo/bison grazing:

Bison relaxing!

But of course, this was nowhere close to how many bison I saw in the park over 2 days. There are about 4,600 in the park, and boy do they make their presence known (NPS).

This is probably the closest I got to one in the park (from my car, of course) and we were stopped many times on our way through.

Lazy buffalo blocking traffic!

We saw many more species over the two days we were there, including countless types of birds. We also got to peek at one of Yellowstone’s elk herds, which was in the same place every time we drove by.

Yellowstone Elk

But perhaps the most exciting wildlife sighting was the two grizzly bears we saw! On the way back from Yellowstone Falls, tons of cars were blocking the road, and a lone grizzly roamed in the plains. I wasn’t able to get a good photo of it.

Then, down the road about a mile, we saw another one! People were out of their cars and walking up to it – not a smart idea. I tried to get a rushed photo of it out the car window, since the Park Ranger was trying to move people away from the area.

Grizzly bear! Well, if you could see it..

It’s almost impossible to see clearly but it’s the dark blob near the top of the hill.

This grizzly bear sighting was the best of them all for me, since I had only ever seen a black bear in the wild in Ontario.

Hope you enjoyed all my pictures from part one and part two of Yellowstone, and I hope to go back soon!